“It would have been better to just go.”
Marjane is now at a point in her life where she is out of choices. With her scathing tongue and Islamic fundamentalism sweeping war-torn Iran, the Satrapi family makes a decision to get Marjane safely away from Iran and place her temporarily in Vienna, Austria with a family friend. Her parents seemed positive throughout her move, but Marjane had a creeping suspicion that this would be the last time she lived with her parents, even through endless reassurances that they would see her in six months time. In this turning point of the book, her parents tear up as she boards for Vienna, but seem strong and supportive with the decision they’ve made. One look back and Marjane’s mother has fainted, limp in the arms of her father and carried away like a child. This moment of weakness by her parents– who had seemed to be fearless protectors all her life– has shocked Marjane, leaving her with a terrible last image of her parents. This seems like the most climatic part of the book in the chapters we’ve read, acting as Marjane’s final exit from childhood and into a very adult adolescence.